THE PRESS BOX.

Craven's 1st victory a popular one

`It's great,' says Jarrett after losing late duel

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Monday's rain-delayed Old Dominion 500 was arguably the best Winston Cup race of the year, and Ricky Craven made it so. He won it every which way.

He led the most laps, 94 of 500. He shot from third to first, sneaking right past a bumper-slamming, fishtailing duel of Kevin Harvick and Bobby Hamilton, to take the lead for keeps with 26 laps to go.

Then he held off Dale Jarrett's ferocious, fender-rubbing charge on the final lap.

And that was just his day's work ... just the surface, the peak at last, six years after winning rookie of the year honors and then finding trouble.

The nice guy from Newburgh, Maine, had, at age 35, had it so hard for so long that even the 42 losers of Monday's race rejoiced with him.

"I was hoping Ricky was gonna win," said third-place Ward Burton. "He's been through a lot."

Most satisfying to Craven was that "We earned it."

He'd been earning it for years. There was the fractured cervical vertebra in 1996 that threw his career off course, the severe concussion in '97, the lingering effects, the disorientation of '98 and the heartbreaking release from Hendrick Motorsports as Jeff Gordon's teammate that year. Then there was the struggle back.

"The last couple of years, I'd begun to wonder whether I'd ever win," Craven said.

On Monday, just when it looked as if Craven would come up short for the 174th time, it was showtime.

On the 473rd lap at Martinsville Speedway, Harvick was leading with Hamilton second and Craven third as they raced through Turn 2.

Hamilton bumped Harvick from behind and got him sideways. Hamilton ran up beside Harvick to make it two-wide for the lead as Craven shot coolly to the inside to make it three wide on backstretch of the flat, narrow .526-mile oval.

At Turn 3, Harvick apparently decided it was time for payback and slammed Hamilton hard from behind, spinning him out and bringing out a caution flag. Harvick was penalized one lap for rough driving, and the spin sent Hamilton to the back.

The final caution lasted 10 laps, and when the green flag flew, Craven had a mirror full of Jarrett's Taurus with 17 laps to go. On the white-flag lap he drove alongside on the backstretch. But Craven hung on to win by .141 seconds.